This past fall I started working with sea urchin divers in Southern California to develop a research project that would put my skills to good use and provide valuable information to inform future management efforts for the fishery. Nate Rosser is a Commissioner on the Sea Urchin Commission, an organization that represents California's sea urchin divers, and he was generous enough to invite me out to shadow him on a short fishing trip to the Channel Islands. With gorgeous weather and an opportunity to experience the hookah diving process in depth, I took hundreds of pictures over those two days! I wasn't able to follow him underwater on this trip, but I still captured his entire above-water process - from motoring out, finding a spot, getting geared up, and finally hauling in the harvest. It was a great experience and incredibly informative.

I continue to talk with people involved with the fishery and develop my research project and will share more about this later, so stay tuned. In the meantime, Nate has put my pictures to great use. Over the past couple of weeks, Nate has posted a series of photo collections on Instagram where he takes viewers on a virtual tour of a typical dive trip, as shown by my photos. While his posts still represent just the tip of the iceberg of what goes into his work and the extensive knowledge he and other divers have about sea urchins and the California coast's marine system, they give a beautiful look into the life of an urchin diver!

Check out the #urchindiverforaday hashtag on Instagram to see more photos!

Eddie is currently leading a 'blue paper' on 'The human relationship with our ocean planet' for the High Level Panel on the Future Ocean Economy.

The panel is composed of world leaders developing solutions for maintaining Ocean “health and wealth” from the perspectives of policy, governance, finance, and technology. The panel sees these solutions as critical for achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), and encourages collaborative, interdisciplinary work around the globe.

Tressa Arbow presented her research, “Workforce Sustainability in the Washington Maritime Industry,” at the Washington Maritime Blue Strategy Rollout event on Tuesday, January 8. Washington Maritime Blue is a task force established by Governor Inslee in 2017 to develop a plan for increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of the Washington maritime industry, or Blue Economy. The roll out event was the formal delivery of the Strategic Plan, and included remarks from Advisory Council members and leaders of key demonstration projects. Tressa’s thesis focuses on the maritime workforce in Washington, with an emphasis on how diversity, inclusion, and equity can contribute to the sustainability of the industry. Her report is included as an appendix in the Washington Maritime Blue Strategy and can be found at www.maritimeblue.org.

Samantha Farquhar has been studying Canada’s national and international marine conservation commitments with the help of the FLAS. Her work has been focused on Canada’s promise to protect 10 percent of its marine and coastal areas by 2020 through the designation of “other effective area-based conservation measures” or OECMs. These areas differ from traditional MPAs, but to what extent they differ is debated, as has the meanings of “conservation” and “protected” areas. Farquhar has become comfortable with the French language through her FLAS, allowing her to work with the Government of Canada and other intergovernmental organizations.